There’s a lot to see on the forest floor in October, if you can look away from this year’s brilliant canopy display. Noticed on a recent walk: wildly variegated patches of hobblebush,…

Why did the mushroom go to the party? Because he’s a fungi! “He” also appeared prominently in your September photographs, growing out of logs, leaf litter, and an unfortunate…

This week feels like fall proper. It’s gray, drizzly, 50s; the kind of weather that makes you realize you’d better batten down the house for winter. We’re going to get to the first…

The northern forest has about 195 grasses, of which 145 are native and 50 introduced. They are our second largest plant family, after the sedges. Our grassiest landscapes are farms and roadsides, with…

When gold was discovered in 1849 at Sutter’s Mill in California, the famous gold rush of 1849 ensued with profound consequences for the West and its native population. Sixteen years later, in…

While sampling in the LaPlatte River, students noticed what looked like rough black pebbles about the size and shape of well-worn pencil erasers. I suppressed my mild distress as they started to…

Every winter, as we plan the next Northern Woodlands Conference, we search out a few speakers who don’t, at first glance, have much to do with northeastern forests. These “surprise”…

A landowner set up her game camera along a stream, and made the tactical error of telling her kids where it was located. Several hours after the first image was taken, a mother bear and two cubs…

“I found this huge thingy in the remains of an old maple stump in my yard,” explains Pamela Wells. The accompanying photo shows a cross-section; what is it?

Growing up in a rural town, I was exposed to a lot of the wonders in nature through hunting. Specifically squirrel hunting, which is how many kids get their start. I don’t do much anymore, but I…

As a kid, I was fascinated and terrified by the idea of carnivorous plants. Growing up in suburban New Jersey, my only exposure to this particular subset of the plant kingdom was the ravenous,…

No, this balsam fir is not changing colors as part of fall foliage. What does explain its yellow needles, the undersides of which hold the answer?

This is a grainy photo of an exceptional subject: a common nighthawk twisting in mid-air to capture an insect. The light conditions were poor; photographer Tig Tillinghast was only able to get the…

Driving around in September, you see walls of firewood wedged between yard trees, covered with scrap metal and ready for battle. Porch racks are piled high, and in many rural towns, people are coming…

While performing field necropsies on moose, Maine biologist Lee Kantar has observed as many as 90,000 winter ticks on a single victim. Such moose are anemic and malnourished. With vital fat reserves…

We’ve been blessed to work with hundreds of talented writers over the last 25 years, and we’d like to more formally introduce you to a few of them. The organizing principal behind this…

“Squish, squash.” I was walking gingerly on a soft, spongy carpet of sphagnum moss in a northern Vermont bog. Magenta blossoms decorated the sheep laurel shrubs that lined the edge of the…

Those of us who have lived in the Northeast long enough remember a time when ticks rarely crossed our paths – or our minds. Especially in the northern parts of New England and New York, tick…

Imagine for a moment that you travel on all fours like other self-respecting quadrupeds. Extend your imagination yet a little more, and with it your body, so that a large dome-shaped shell-like…

Last week, a game camera in Strafford, Vermont, captured this wildlife selfie. What are we looking at? Or, rather, what is looking at us?